Got nice Firm Feel bars and took them out with vice grips. Good grief. Vice grips have no place in torsion bar removal. It's not even easier to take them out that way, it's just lazy.
The stress riser isn't gone as soon as the gouge is flush. The metal underneath the gouge is hardened from the compression. You have to dress it down further than just the surface damage if you want to eliminate the possibility of a stress riser. Of course, you can't actually see how deep the damage goes into the bar, so, you're just guessing.
A torsion bar carries like 90% of the load on the surface. Same as a sway bar, which is why you can get away with hollow bars. Damage the surface, well, you changed how it carries load. People have done it, but plenty of people have had torsion bars break too. Which one you'll end up being depends on how bad the damage is. Would have been a lot easier to remove the bars the correct way.
